Campaign Monitor Vs Infusionsoft

Purchasing a new system for your business is an important decision – and an investment in your future and the future of your business. It’s likely you will do this slowly, over time. When your client list reaches a certain point, and business revenues achieve certain thresholds, it’s time to look at your processes and systems. This is an exciting time for any business owner because it means what you’re doing is working – and now you can find ways to optimise your best practices and prune some out dated ways of operating that may take more of your time and focus than you’d like.

The purchase of new business infrastructure is an investment, software included – and all investments should show a positive return over time. Only you can define the best way to optimise your business profits and it is important to be clear about this before you pay good money. Some platforms offer Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems that don’t do lead capture and nurture; others do wonderful things with email marketing but don’t offer much when it comes to social media. The key for you, as the business owner with the money to invest, is in knowing your end-game.

Overview of Campaign Monitor:

If the bulk of your marketing activity is based around email marketing campaigns, then Campaign Monitor is certainly a system worth considering. It offers an email marketing platform with quite a wide range of opportunities for customisation, and includes a reasonable level of analytics and reporting. It also includes a range of innovative design templates for email and electronic newsletters. While not specifically designed for small businesses, Campaign Monitor has a range of versions, some of which suit smaller enterprises and others that are designed for much larger organisations. Over 100,000 companies across the world – from microbusinesses to big businesses – utilise Campaign Monitor for email marketing. The structure of Campaign Monitor is more flexible than most other email marketing software out there; not only can you create, execute and launch email marketing campaigns quickly and easily, but you can also automate much of this process.

Price for Campaign Monitor:
This is difficult to determine because Campaign Monitor is actually available in 14 different versions – now that’s a flexible market offering! That said, working through each option can be confusing so it helps to know exactly what you need. The prices range from $9 for the most basic version, up to $699 for their most advanced version.

Best FeaturesofCampaign Monitor:

Over 1,000 free email templates for running different kinds of promotional email campaigns are included.

Ability to integrate with popular Content Management Systems such as WordPress, Drupal, etc.

Custom designs for your promotional campaigns can be uploaded easily with a single click.

Campaign Monitor allows you to create highly personalised email marketing programs for your list. It’s well-known that the more customised your marketing, the better your sales – and the ‘stickier’ your clients. Personalising your communications to customers has been shown to increase client spend by 10-15% each time your customer buys from your business – and this is all money in your pocket. Not only can you personalise your email templates for your business and for specific campaigns targeting groups of clients, but it is also possible to optimise your emails for mobile devices. In terms of list management, the software includes preferences management, opt-in forms, and multiple lists and segments.

You should be aware however, that Campaign Monitor is not designed to handle any other kind of marketing. If you plan to run customer engagement programs via social media, or to integrate any offline promotional activities with your online email marketing activities, this software will need other applications in order to achieve the right result for your business from those activities. You will need to check with your website developer regarding whether or not this is likely to cause a problem for you – there is no point running wonderful lead capture campaigns that work and rake in warm prospects if you cannot get those details into your backend list quickly and easily for follow-up nurture campaigns.

To talk to an expert more specifically about your business needs regarding automation, CRM, and marketing campaign strategy, book a free Business Automation Strategy Session with our experts today.

Overview of Infusionsoft:

Infusionsoft CRM is an integrated sales and marketing solution for your business. With a well-organised Client Relationship Management (CRM) component built-in, and a highly intuitive marketing platform, it can be tailored almost to the individual client level – or at least it can deliver this impression pretty strongly to your clients and, as covered above, this does pay dividends when it comes to profitability.

Infusionsoft is designed specifically for small businesses, so automation is one of the features it delivers in spades. Infusionsoft’s focus is on customer lifecycle marketing and it is designed to add value in the following areas of your business:

Marketing Automation

CRM

Channel Management

Self-Service Portal

Project Collaboration

Over 23,000 small business owners already utilise Infusionsoft as both the highly customisable CRM that it is, as well as the best way to segment their lists and automate their sales and marketing programs. Infusionsoft was developed as an antidote to the nightmare of Multiple System Chaos – something every small to medium business owner deals with at some stage of their business growth. It is an effective and efficient solution to this problem. The platform includes almost everything you need, including electronic newsletter creation and campaign strategy. Lead capture, scoring and followup can not only be done using Infusionsoft – and done to an impressively specific degree – but automated as well. This is a huge time saver for business owners and just one of the reasons why this platform is so popular. Infusionsoft also allows you to tailor your campaigns to the interests and behaviours of your list – and to do this with ease.

Price for Infusionsoft:

Infusionsoft pricing starts at around $199 / month per user. There is also a start-up fee of around $2K. This kickstart fee covers your training and your one-on-one personal consultant (and is well worth this money).

Best Features of Infusionsoft:

The training Infusionsoft offers is an excellent way to hit the ground running, and considered by many as one of the best features of the program. Your consultant walks you step by step through the setting up of the software for your specific business needs; the platform is flexible and intuitive so you may not need everything it offers right away – but it is designed to be scalable and grow with your business. Infusionsoft also includes a shopping cart functionality, as well as a social media marketing component. This way, you do not need to purchase any other systems, or worry about how to ‘graft’ external software onto the platform for which you have already laid out your cash – another win for busy business owners.

Infusionsoft’s main features include:

Contact Management

Customer Service

Marketing Automation

Sales Automation

Campaign Management

Campaign Performance Reports

Email Marketing

Email Triggers

Lead Management

Lead Tracking

Marketing Automation

Sales and CRM Integration

Social Media

Web Analytics

Collaboration Centre

If you think Infusionsoft’s the one for you, contact one of our experts to talk through all your options. Book a free Business Automation Strategy Session with our experts today.

Which One Should You Choose?

This is a hard question to answer because Infusionsoft and Campaign Monitor do not really do the same thing. Whereas Campaign Monitor is an excellent email marketing solution for just about any sized business, it isn’t a CRM nor is it designed to behave as one. If your business requires any other form of marketing at all that you’d like to track and around which you’d like to create lead capture, nurture and follow-up campaigns, then Campaign Monitor is not going to give you that.
If you’re after a sales and marketing automation system, with efficient CRM functionality, that can handle multiple campaigns run across a variety of media, including email marketing promotions, then Infusionsoft may be your answer. It’s a good idea to think carefully about the flexibility of both systems – and the scalability you will require as your business grows. You don’t want to purchase a system you’re only going to end up replacing in a few years, even if the economics seem to make the most sense right now.

Talk to an expert about what you need – because while there are dozens of digital marketing options out there, they won’t all suit your business. Our expert consultants have tried and tested just about every system for small business that’s out there. Contact an expert for your free Business Automation Strategy Session today.

If you’re not sure just what you need in your business right now, contact one of our trained CRM consultants. They’ll take the time to sit down with you and talk through what your business requirements are – and precisely what you need from yours new system.